Best of 2010, Update 13

I've decided to split my running tabulation of the "Best of 2010" into two lists, one for fiction and one for nonfiction, because I'm a bit surprised at how difficult it has become for me to produce a meaningful, combined list. I am happy to find that my "instant ranking system" produces a truer picture than I've ever been able to come up with at the end of a year's worth of reading, and I think this tweak will help me keep the books in better perspective. I can even see the possiblity of expanding one, or both lists, to a Top 15 later in the year.

This is what the fiction list looks like right now after 21 fiction books read:

1. Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese (novel)
2. Matterhorn - Karl Marlantes (Vietnam War novel)
3. The Calligrapher's Daughter - Eugenia Kim (novel)
4. A Fair Maiden - Joyce Carol Oates (novel)
5. The Samaritan's Secret - Matt Beynon Rees (detective fiction)
6. Homer & Langley - E.L. Doctorow (novel)
7. Blind Submission - Debra Ginsberg (novel)
8. T Is for Trespass - Sue Grafton (detective fiction)
9. Get Out of the Way - Daniel Dinges (novel)
10. Transfer of Power - Vince Flynn (thriller)

And this is the nonfiction list, a Top 7 at this point because I've only read seven nonfiction titles to date:

1. Lies My Mother Never Told Me - Kaylie Jones (memoir)
2. Man of Constant Sorrow - Ralph Stanley & Eddie Dean (biography)
3. The Opposite Field - Jesse Katz - (memoir)
4. The Tennis Partner - Abraham Verghese (1998 memoir)
5. Game Change - John Heilemann & Mark Halperin (political nonfiction)
6. Goosetown: Reconstructing an Akron Neighborhood - Joyce Dyer (memoir)
7. Highest Duty - Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger (memoir)